No place on our flag

Obama's face on the Stars and Stripes smacks of a cult of personality

Nancy Hurlbert can’t understand why, after several months, some veterans have objected to her flying an American flag with Barack Obama’s face in place of the 50 stars.

“It leads me to believe that it’s not about the flag,” the chairwoman of the Lake County, Fla., Democratic Party was quoted. “Certain elements cannot accept Barack Obama as president.”

That’s just detached from reality. Many older veterans voted for Mr. Obama. And they’re not the racists the media love to portray them as. They simply risked their lives for the freedoms symbolized by that grand old flag, and they don’t appreciate it being desecrated. It could’ve been a Ninja Turtle on the flag, and the vets would’ve been just as exercised about it.

But we do agree with Ms. Hurlbert on one thing: In many ways, this dispute is not about the flag itself.

Rather, it’s unnerving and upsetting that anyone would think it appropriate to emblazen a political figure on our flag. Such an act evokes the kind of cult of personality you see in Latin American dictatorships. That’s both frightening and repulsive to most Americans.

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The stars and stripes should become the hussein and stripes! This way,holder wouldn't sue school children for wearing the stars and stripes as a patriotic gesture. Wonder if burning the hussein and stripes would be a felony?

I really don’t see the point of this editorial – Hey everyone! How about this one …

From November, 2011 (AP) … Hours after Pennsylvania State Police arrested a 21-year-old Idaho man for allegedly firing a semi-automatic rifle at the White House, the top student official for the College Republicans at the University of Texas tweeted that the idea of assassinating President Obama was “tempting.”
At 2:29 p.m. ET, UT’s Lauren E. Pierce wrote: “Y’all as tempting as it may be, don’t shoot Obama. We need him to go down in history as the WORST president we’ve EVER had! #2012.”
Pierce, the president of the College Republicans at UT Austin, told ABC News the comment was a “joke” and that the “whole [shooting incident] was stupid.” Giggling, she said that an attempted assassination would “only make the situation worse.”
“Insofar as she’s a representative [of College Republicans], maybe it shouldn’t be said, but she’s made a positive statement in a way, ” said Cassie Wright, the group’s vice president.
“I don’t really see anything wrong with it,” Wright added. “It’s just a personal comment, not representative of any group. Just freedom of speech, you know?”

The point is that sometimes stupid people do and say stupid things. I don’t believe for a minute that anyone (or any Republican) attending the University of Texas would like to see harm come to our President. By the same token I take offense that this editorial implies that the actions of Ms. Hurlbert are representative of those that support the President (and don’t insult our intelligence by denying that that was your intention).

And what’s with the ….. “Many older veterans voted for Mr. Obama. And they’re not the racists the media love to portray them as.”

I’m an older veteran who voted for the President and I’ve never been portrayed in the media as a racist. Could you please cite an example instead of just throwing that out there.

It kills me that I live in a city with only one newspaper; one that cannot provide an objective political view. Don’t you realize that ‘editorials’ like these show you as nothing more than a shill for the Republican Party?

I finally saw the flag with Obama's face on it. Seriously? If there are no stars on there, along with the red and white bars- it's not the American flag. Do people get upset when they look at the Malaysian flag? Or the one techfan posted?

You know, messing around with the flag is just tacky. If your intention is to show support for the President, this is the wrong way to go about it. And however much some of our editorialists and commentators (whose hatred for the man apparently knows no bounds) may think otherwise, President Obama would not approve either. Seriously. Just stop.

That said...another editorial that is much ado about nothing. There are serious, weighty matters worthy of discussion. This one isn't worth the column inches.

Of course the flag isn't supposed to be used for advertising purposes either. Lets's see if there's an editorial condemning this for car dealers and other businesses around Presidents' Day or the 4th of July.

Techfan: How come the flag cannot be used for advertising purposes? Numerous talk shows/news programs use the flag as a backdrop, advertising their patriotism. Shirts are made which look like it was from an actually flag, shirts are made with just a print of it on the shirt. Musicians at times play guitars with an American flag theme. I could go on. So what's the problem?